Rescue dog let down

jimmyjimsgin

wow! didnt see that one coming! the dog was not treated like second best, he was in a crate when i was not in the house as recommended by my vet. i fed him and my own dog seperately for obvious reasons. I contacted RSPCA today and they dont feel that I should get nowhere. How the charity have handled this is a major issue in my opinion also it is an expensive lesson which no doubt will happen again to other people like myself. Hence I am questioning the assessment process used by this charity and their professionalism.

Anihilator wrote: »

Firstly it is a donation. You didnt buy the dog. You agreed to make the donation and its non refundable.

Secondly nothing you write shows any neglience on the charities behalf. The dog could have been perfectly fine until it got into your house. Maybe the dog didnt like being treated like second best or locked in a crate whilst you fed the other one and showed a genuine animal tendency.

Put it down to a lesson because your getting nowhere.

sco0ter

jimmyjimsgin wrote: »

wow! didnt see that one coming! the dog was not treated like second best, he was in a crate when i was not in the house as recommended by my vet.

But was the dog locked in a crate in its previous time?? If you are taking a dog that has had the run of a home or the company of other dogs all day and lock it away for hours every day then maybe this upset the dog.

As you do not know the state, mentality, or treatment of the animal before hand then maybe a bit more consideration should have been given to it. I understand it from a vets point of view but this would be OK with a pup or if you were its first owner then it has had no reasonable experience it can determine as being right or wrong.

Who's to say it wasnt recued because it was locked in a crate for 20 hours a day, or locked up constantly, Maybe you triggered something by doing this.

I had a rescue dog for six years that had been severly beaten and badly treated all of its seven years before I got it. It took almost 6 months for me to get it to a stage where I could get it to come over to me without crawling on its belly along the floor and dribbling urine along the way.

Rescue dogs should never be seen like pups or first owner dogs. They have went through a whole load of issues and could be mentally scarred. I would have no problems with taking a rescue dog again but would definately not do it while I have children in the house as they can be too unpredictable through no fault of thier own. Unless you can have an account of thier treatment that caused them to be rescued (although I know for a fact that they will not tell you now) then they have to be treated extremely carefully for the first few months untill they realise they are not going to get beatings or misstreated and that they are going to get food and water.

That said the treatment from the charity that you have recieved is terrible but unfortunately these people seem to think they are above the law and if you really want to annoy them then going to the local newspaper or something might put the wind up them or if they have an official site with a forum then make your complaint there for others to read.

Optimist

You have two choices write it down to experience and feel the warm glow of helping a charity or take it to court

If you take it to court then it would seem it all hangs on the word donation. If it truly was a donation I.E. a gift given without any expectation of a return. Then I don't see how you have a chance. However if it was mandatory for you to give the money and you got a dog in return then you bought it no matter what word they use to pretty it up and it comes under SOGA.

A judge would have to decide taking into account all the factors at the time. If you feel strongly enough then your next step would be to write to them giving them 14 days to rectify i.e. return your money Then go to court using the small claims process and see what a judge has to say.

jimmyjimsgin

I was told to put the dog inthe crate to protect the dog also as it was the settling in period. I only put him in it during the night and if I went out. My dog was placed by the crate unlike having free run of the home. If the history of the dog was not definite the chartity should not have chosen this dog for us. Having children was never an issue for the charity, they assured me that they would only place a dog with reliable history and temperament with us.

sco0ter wrote: »

But was the dog locked in a crate in its previous time?? If you are taking a dog that has had the run of a home or the company of other dogs all day and lock it away for hours every day then maybe this upset the dog.

As you do not know the state, mentality, or treatment of the animal before hand then maybe a bit more consideration should have been given to it. I understand it from a vets point of view but this would be OK with a pup or if you were its first owner then it has had no reasonable experience it can determine as being right or wrong.

Who's to say it wasnt recued because it was locked in a crate for 20 hours a day, or locked up constantly, Maybe you triggered something by doing this.

I had a rescue dog for six years that had been severly beaten and badly treated all of its seven years before I got it. It took almost 6 months for me to get it to a stage where I could get it to come over to me without crawling on its belly along the floor and dribbling urine along the way.

Rescue dogs should never be seen like pups or first owner dogs. They have went through a whole load of issues and could be mentally scarred. I would have no problems with taking a rescue dog again but would definately not do it while I have children in the house as they can be too unpredictable through no fault of thier own. Unless you can have an account of thier treatment that caused them to be rescued (although I know for a fact that they will not tell you now) then they have to be treated extremely carefully for the first few months untill they realise they are not going to get beatings or misstreated and that they are going to get food and water.

That said the treatment from the charity that you have recieved is terrible but unfortunately these people seem to think they are above the law and if you really want to annoy them then going to the local newspaper or something might put the wind up them or if they have an official site with a forum then make your complaint there for others to read.

Anihilator

jimmyjimsgin wrote: »

I was told to put the dog inthe crate to protect the dog also as it was the settling in period. I only put him in it during the night and if I went out. My dog was placed by the crate unlike having free run of the home. If the history of the dog was not definite the chartity should not have chosen this dog for us. Having children was never an issue for the charity, they assured me that they would only place a dog with reliable history and temperament with us.

You clearly have no understanding of what a rescue dog is. Its impossible to know its history often. People who abandon dogs or have them taken off them don't write letters explaining they locked it up constantly, kicked it or abused it.

You were given poor advice and this isnt the charities fault. This dog was treated differently and locked up and it will have seen this. It in all likiehood felt threatened.

The dog may have been fine until you started locking it in a cage and treating it differently.

makapo

jimmyjimsgin wrote: »

I know a dog falls under the Sale of Goods act 1979 so therefore must be fit for purpose, but paying the "donation" does that rid all liability from the charity.

It's not covered by the Sale of Goods Act if it's not a sale. You might be able to successfully argue in court that the compulsory donation effectively makes it a sale.

You could test this by bringing a county court case against them for payment of the vet's fees for treatment following the dogfight. If you win that, you then have a good case for suing for a refund.

But your grievance against the charity should be kept separate from your wish to acquire a second dog. If you must have a second dog, the safety of your child should be your first consideration. Rescue dogs by definition have suffered ill treatment to greater or less degree. For the sake of your child, if you're determined to have a second dog, you should as others have said buy a puppy, and you should buy it from a reputable breeder where you can see the puppy beforehand with its mother, and be confident that it has not been mistreated. Then you'll have the right to return it for a refund if things don't work out.

But why not consider sticking with just one dog? Better for all concerned, by the sound of it.

ihatecaptcha

makapo wrote: »

It's not covered by the Sale of Goods Act if it's not a sale. You might be able to successfully argue in court that the compulsory donation effectively makes it a sale.

You could test this by bringing a county court case against them for payment of the vet's fees for treatment following the dogfight. If you win that, you then have a good case for suing for a refund.

Unlikely to win on the vet's fees though, since the OP states they used to work in a rescue centre and so could be assumed to be aware of the risks involved in rehoming a rescue dog.

But your grievance against the charity should be kept separate from your wish to acquire a second dog. If you must have a second dog, the safety of your child should be your first consideration.....But why not consider sticking with just one dog? Better for all concerned, by the sound of it.

Yep. I completely agree.

Wicked_witch

I have to respectfully disagree with those suggesting that people with children should not take in a rescue dog. Although some do have problems, many others are in need of homes because of the death of an owner or a change in family circumstances that means the dog can't stay in its original home (especially now the recession is biting). The important thing is to go to a reputable and established charity who keep and assess the dog over several weeks at least and under various circumstances (eg with other dogs, with cats, with various different volunteers).

I'd also have thought that if the OP was given bad advice that was entirely the charities fault, unless I have misunderstood and it was given by a vet or other person unrelated to the charity.

sco0ter

Wicked_witch wrote: »

I have to respectfully disagree with those suggesting that people with children should not take in a rescue dog. Although some do have problems, many others are in need of homes because of the death of an owner or a change in family circumstances that means the dog can't stay in its original home (especially now the recession is biting). .

The problem here is that sometimes trying to get the history of the dog is impossible. I was lucky and told EXACTLY how brutal my rescue dog was treated. I had an understanding of what situations the dog would deem threatening and what would scare him. Unless you know the exact history then taking on a rescue dog no matter how much asssesment it has had could be risky for small children. All it takes is for a small child to grab a dog in a way that reminded it of the way its old owner grabbed it before a beating and it could trigger a retaliation from it and it wouldnt be the dogs fault.

Wicked_witch wrote: »

The important thing is to go to a reputable and established charity who keep and assess the dog over several weeks at least and under various circumstances (eg with other dogs, with cats, with various different volunteers)..

But even this situation is not ideal. Even if it has been assessed over several weeks it is being assessed by people that know what the dog went through and what circumstances to avoid. Even if the charity the OP was talking about had the dog assessed for 6 months and it never once caused a problem the fact that she put it in a crate could have triggered something to make it attack the other dog. Maybe in its old home the dog was locked up for days on end and not fed while another more favourite dog was let loose and fed all the time. I doubt the charity would recreate these circumstances to see if it was "cured" before sending it off to a new home so unless they tell you exactly what it went through then the rescue dogs have to be treated more sensitively than you would normally until they can grow to trust you.

Wicked_witch wrote: »

I'd also have thought that if the OP was given bad advice that was entirely the charities fault, unless I have misunderstood and it was given by a vet or other person unrelated to the charity.

The vet was the one who told her to keep the dog in a crate...

I am in no way saying that what happened was the OP fault but rescue dogs can take months to settle. remember that they could have been removed from a brutal home then taken to a centre where it bonds and trusts staff just to be ripped away from them and put into a new home with strangers where its whole living experience is changed again and in its eyes could have been going back the way.